Sunday, January 22, 2012

Liz Montgomery & Dick York & Why they never spoke to each other again

After 25 years of not having anything to do with someone who was never a friend but merely someone she worked with compared to a close longtime personal friend that Dick Sargent was to Liz clearly shows why Liz commented on Dick Sargent's passing as she did as well re close friends Alice Pierce & Agnes Moorehead but did not re Dick Yorks passing as she did not about other members of the cast who passed away such as Paul Lynde (whose funeral she did not attend) and others.

There was no need to make a Public comment on Dick Yorks passing all these decades later & who contributed what success to the show has zero to do with who she should have commented on or not, it should be passed on personal feelings not rating points & $$$$ garnered by a cast member the is irrelevant.

She did not rave about Dick Sargent she spoke very positively about him when he was on the show as she did about Dick York when he was on the show.

She was contacted by the press after DS passed but i don't believe the same interest was there with the media in that respect with DY when he passed in regards to contacting Liz then.

She had no reaction to Dick York's passing but then why would she?????...........as this was by then 25 years later a complete stranger who she simply had once worked with and had not seen or interacted with in almost 25 years, plus at the end Dick York made some very unkind comments towards the show & therefore indirectly towards Liz so her reaction of no comment is the only logical & rational one she could have made.

The fact that in the spring of 1971 when he asked back into the show after leaving, was denied & then said about Liz & the show in an interview about the unpleasant atmosphere on the set, how he was unhappy with how he was being used in the show as in underused & how he wanted to go onto other & better things sure would have made Liz say throughout those 25 years hey i got to give good ol Dick a call, i don't think sooooooooooo.

In the 1988 book "Whatever became of?", York stated: "I left in an amulance and never returned. The atmosphere on the set of Bewitched was extremely unpleasant. I never missed that show."

Dick Sargent had been a longtime close personal friend who she had been very close to in the half dozen or so years prior to his passing so her comment on his passing was a natural & logical one. Bottom line is that Liz & Dick York worked together & Brilliantly i might add, but there never was a close personal Friendship or any relationship to continue, nor were they friends at all.

You have to understand that they were real people who were actors playing roles that were not them, they were not Samantha & Darrin in real life, sometimes people get that reality confused.

This is not unusual as one could say the same thing about any cast member & the majority of the cast & as well about anyone & most of those that they work with her their never having any contact again after his leaving the show is perfectly natural in my view.

This doesn't mean they liked or disliked each other, they merely worked with each other & had the same working experience that any actor or actress has with 95% of all those they work with.

It was a job & they had a job to do & they did it, then they went their own way, as you must recall that they both had spouses & large young families to tend too, this along with the full time job of carrying a weekly series left little or no time for any other interaction between the two, they both already had a full plate to deal with.

I have heard it said that she strongly disliked Dick York but this is in no way corroborated in the least & there is no basis to think that it is so.

These internet rumors are i feel made up by those that have their own issues & for some reason need to use this fiction to express them.

After DY left the show there was simply no reason for them to have any contact with each other as is the case with all actors pretty much once they finish a project, they just move on with their lives.

Liz had real phobias with anything medical so i can see her not wanting to go the hospital to see him for this reason.

Liz & Dick Sargent had drifted apart & lost touch shortly after Bewitched ended & had not seen each other in about 15 years till they were reunited when both were approached by Herbie J Pilato in regards to interviews for his then upcoming book The Bewitched Book, they reconnected through Herbie as they discussed if they should cooperate or not with him.

When Herbie met David White for the first time in Liz's Garden at her home as a special surprise for him, he was told by David White he had not been there for over 15 years.

So she drifted apart even from good friends as people do when the matter that brought them together in the first place ended.

So these things are natural & normal & not anything that should reflect negatively on her, quite the opposite, this is how it is supposed to be & is with everyone in life & was the case as well with any member of this or any other cast of any other show.

Same thing with her good friend Carol Burnett when Carol moved to Hawaii, they just lost touch after being great friends since they did Who's Been Sleeping in my bed? together in 1963.

She had not seen or talked to Kasey Rogers after Bewitched until at Dick Sargents funeral 22 years later.

She kept in touch with Erin Murphy mainly because Erin was such great friends with her kids, but when they all grew up Liz lost touch with Erin as well.

Life happens & means nothing other then that, as was the case when Liz & Dick York lost contact with each other & they were not even friends like she & Dick Sargent & David White were.

Another salient point is that some have said that Liz should have run to his aid & nursed him at his bedside,and funded his medical & living expenses as soon as Dick York's plight had become public.

Dick York had 5 children who by the time he hit rock bottom were 30 or more and had established their own adult lives one would think by then.

Where were they? Why didn't they come running to his their father's side & aid, pay his medical & living expenses, a wheel chair, buy him the oxygen tank and equipment for his survival.

Only when it become publicly known did charitable donations come through to meet his medical equipment needs.

The point is that those who keep demanding Liz should have done these things for a stranger whose last contact with her 25 years earlier had been insulting on his part, should ask themselves why instead his children abandoned him in his hour of greatest need.

By 1990 they should have had between 5 and 10 incomes between them all, yet out of this they could not meet any of the needs i have listed causing Dick York to turn to a public appeal for charity handouts to pay for his medical needs such as a wheelchair and oxygen tank.?

It was the responsibility of his children and family to do so not Elizabeth Montgomery's or any other people associated with Bewitched.

Where were his adult children at this point and why did they turn their collective backs on him, there is more to this back story then meets the eye.